From: Pinehurst, N.C.
Age: 26
Home parish: Our Lady of the Americas, Biscoe
Status: Started Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Cincinnati, in August 2022
Favorite verse or teaching: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jer 1:5)
Favorite saint: St. John Paul II
Interests (outside of faith): Loves to play frisbee and soccer
CHARLOTTE — A job as a personal care assistant at a nursing home really opened Bryan Ilagor’s eyes to the dignity and sanctity of all human life.
Ilagor, 26, has always had an affinity for the elderly, and years before applying to St. Joseph College Seminary in Mount Holly he felt called to assist them.
“You learn a lot from them – a lot of life lessons,” he says. “You learn what life is all about. By feeding them, changing them, you learn about the dignity of life. You knew some of them for a few months and then they were gone. You learned to appreciate the value of life.”
Ilagor says taking the time to slow down and listen to the elderly taught him virtues that have stood him well during his time in the seminary, where he’s discerning a calling as a priest.
“Patience was one of the biggest things I learned at seminary. I had learned this with the elderly, but being one of the oldest in the college seminary and never having brothers, it was a big change,” he recalls. Having “brothers” – other young men like him discerning the priesthood in the seminary – took some getting used to, he says.
He and eight of his brother seminarians graduated from St. Joseph College Seminary last August and now attend Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati – among 49 men currently in formation to serve as priests in the Diocese of Charlotte.
CNH: When did you first hear the call to a vocation to the priesthood?
Ilagor: I was a senior in high school. I did not attend Mass regularly as a high school student, but I attended Mass because of my mother. As my attendance at Sunday Masses grew, I started questioning my career and my future lifestyle. I began attending Mass for my sake rather than my mother’s. However, after graduation, I still had not grasped my future vocation and decided to attend college. Finally, after running away from the call to a vocation for about five years, I decided that my calling had been on hold for too long, and I entered seminary at the age of 22.
CNH: How did your family react when you told them you wanted to become a priest?
Ilagor: They were in shock, I guess. My mom not so much, because moms know their children. With all my assisting at our parish, she probably knew about my vocation. My dad was more like, “Are you sure?” I am the only son, and I have only one sister. So, my dad was more reluctant at first. But in the end, both of my parents supported me. They have always supported me in anything I do.
CNH: How did you end up in Charlotte, at St. Joseph College Seminary?
Ilagor: It was at the Eucharistic Congress that things got started. I stopped by the Diocese of Charlotte vocations booth. It was when Father Alfonso Gámez (who now serves at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Winston-Salem) was a seminarian. I stopped to talk to him. He told me his parents were from the same state in Mexico where my parents are from. I could relate to him. We kept in touch, and he helped guide me through the process of applying to seminary for the diocese.
CNH: What advice do you have for a young man discerning a call to the priesthood?
Ilagor: If you feel a calling to the priesthood, do not dismiss the chance to visit St. Joseph College Seminary for a day and communicate your discernment to a priest.
CNH: When you envision your life as a priest of the Charlotte diocese, what do you see?
Ilagor: I see bringing the light of Christ to people, being able to be that vessel of Christ to fulfill what He plans for me to do with His people. I envision myself as a servant. Being able to do what God wills and do it to the best of my ability. To fulfill what He has planned for me.
— SueAnn Howell
Seminarian education is funded in part by the annual Diocesan Support Appeal.
Learn more about the DSA and how to donate online at www.charlottediocese.org/dsa.
Bishop Jugis gives thanks for consecrated men and women
CHARLOTTE — People who serve in the Diocese of Charlotte as religious order priests, brothers and sisters were honored during a special Mass on Saturday.
Bishop Peter Jugis celebrated Mass for the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life at St. Vincent de Paul Church. The annual Mass, held in conjunction with the Church’s worldwide celebration, honors religious men and women who serve the Church in the western half of North Carolina.
More than 50 religious sisters ranging in age from the mid-20s to late 80s were present, representing nine religious orders that minister in the diocese. Among them were two 2023 jubilarians: Trappist Sister Genevieve Durcan (Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance) and Franciscan Sister Jane Russell (Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis), who are both celebrating 60 years of professed religious life this year. They currently live with the Sisters of Mercy in Belmont.
Trappist Sister Genevieve Durcan and Franciscan Sister Jane Russell are both celebrating 60 years of professed religious life this year. They are pictured Feb. 4 with Bishop Peter Jugis.Bishop Jugis gave thanks for the gift of their religious vocation and their service to the Church in the diocese.
“It demonstrates to me, and to everyone whom you encounter, that the Holy Spirit is alive and well in the Diocese of Charlotte,” he told them. “The Holy Spirit is inspiring men and women to a total gift of self to God, following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.”
The whole body of the Church gives witness to Christ, the bishop said, yet “nothing can substitute for the special witness that you religious give both to those inside the Church and those outside the Church – a witness to the holiness of the kingdom of Christ, a witness to the holiness of the Church.”
Referring to the day’s Gospel passage from Matthew 16:24-27, the bishop reflected on Christ’s words to His followers: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”
“This is a saying of Jesus that is meant for all Christians regardless of their vocations,” he explained. “Deny oneself, put Christ first, and then follow Him. It’s true for Christian marriage, it’s true for the Christian single life.”
Yet, he added, those who consecrate their lives through religious vows and promises provide a special and powerful witness.
“It’s the way you gain the whole world and finding one’s life in the process,” he said. “The Lord has given you that very special grace of a vocation of leaving everything and following Christ, witnessing to a kingdom that ‘is in the world but not of the world.’”
Established by then-Pope John Paul II in 1997, the World Day for Consecrated Life is held in conjunction with the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also known as Candlemas, commemorating the coming of Christ, the Light of the World, through the symbolic lighting of candles. The worldwide Church commemorated the day on Feb. 2.
In a statement, Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, said the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life provides a special opportunity for Catholics to give thanks to God for people who choose a consecrated vocation.
“We give thanks to God today for continuing to call men and women to serve Him as consecrated persons in the Church. May each of us be inspired by their example to love God above all things and serve Him in all that we do,” he said.
— Story and photos by SueAnn Howell
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